Symphony

A four-movement orchestral genre that lets themes grow inside sonata form.

Related

ClassicalSymphonySonata FormTimpani

The symphony is a multi-movement orchestral genre that broke free from the opera overture in the eighteenth century. It scales sonata form up to the orchestra and lets themes travel through keys and colours.

Origins and dates

In the 1730s, composers in Italy and Mannheim turned the fast-slow-fast overture into an independent orchestral work. Haydn wrote one hundred and four and settled the four-movement design and the practice of developing themes. Beethoven added the scherzo, motivic development and longer codas, and the orchestra grew with him.

Listening features

The first movement often opens with a slow introduction, then exposition, development and recapitulation. A slow second movement follows, then a minuet or scherzo, and a finale in rondo or sonata form. Listen to the bass and timpani, and to how a theme is broken up, modulated and reassembled. The band grows from some thirty players to over a hundred, thickening the colour.

Composers and works

Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler and Sibelius. Mahler brings chorus and soloists into the symphony; Sibelius compresses its structure.

Lineage

It grows from the opera overture and the Mannheim school and leads to the symphonic poem, the chamber symphony and film scoring. The concerto and string quartet share its sonata thinking.

Misconceptions

A symphony need not have four movements, and it is not simply a long sonata. It is not always programme music; Beethoven's Pastoral is the exception.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Symphony" — definitions and dating checked, not quoted
• Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music, vol. 2 — context checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.